Swimming

This past week was busy as usual. Adam left at 5:30 Monday morning for the 50 mile Scout hike. His pack weighed about 50 lbs, but when I talked to him on Tuesday he had collected a few more things from some of his boys so he said his weight jumped to 60 or 70 lbs. He hiked out on his own on Wednesday afternoon, since being gone for a whole week during the busiest roofing time would be somewhat of a challenge. A couple other men from the ward hiked in and met up with the group to finish off the week of their hiking. The bishop and his family invited Tyson, Lincoln, and I along with the wife and two children of one of the other leaders gone on the hike, over for Family Home Evening. We had tacos for dinner, a FHE lesson, and then all the kids enjoyed playing/swimming in the pool. I don’t own a swimsuit (since I next to never go swimming) and so I warned the Bishop that Tyson had probably been in a pool about 3 times in his 4 yrs of living and that would not give much experience for judgment in water. As we both tried to point out the diamonds that were in a semi-circle and that after crossing over those would drop you into the deeper part of the pool and then asked Bishop’s daughter Halli to walk that pattern with him, it backfired as to our attempt to help him out as he started to walk towards Halli and instead of turning and following the diamond pattern he walked right off the drop off into the deeper end. All I could do was gasp and Bishop jumped in and reached down and grabbed him. Halli and I were just in shock at what just happened, but Bishop was quick to react (I wonder if he has had to do that before). Tyson was definitely not happy and in fact it was only until the end that he would step back in the water. He spent his time loading and re-loading a water toy and squirting Halli and the Bishop’s wife as well as taking a bucket of water and tried pouring it on them. He tends to have crushes on pretty girls/women. On Tuesday I went with our Webelos to another pool in our ward and we worked on the Aquanaut badge. Tyson and Lincoln did very well to play on the swingset and keep their distance from the pool. On Wednesday evening Shelley and I celebrated Tyson and her twins, Jace & Jenna’s birthdays as Tyson kept asking me when it was going to be his birthday even though his had come and gone. I realized that he has reached the age to notice that it is your birthday when you get to have a cake and be sung to and blow candles out. Susie encouraged me to make this dozer cake that she saw online, but I managed to talk her into putting it together if I bought the stuff for it. So that is what we spent Wednesday afternoon doing and it turned out very well as you can see. Great Job, Susie! Tyson loved it and shared it with Jace. Sorry Jenna, boys’ ruled on this one. On Saturday Daniel and Susie had watched our boys over night and they took the kids to a splash pad/pool at Susie’s friend’s place in St. George. I think Tyson just doubled his pool/water experiences in just this one week. I have registered Tyson for a couple weeks of swim lessons in July, so I am looking forward to having him learn a little more about water and how to act in it. Friday was our Anniversary and so in the afternoon we dropped the kids off at Susie’s and headed to St. George (Hey, this is a big step since this is the first time we have done anything for our anniversary in the 5 yrs we have been married). I had a list of options of things for us to do but no set plans so it was fun to do whatever we felt in the mood for. We went to Shade and I finally used a gift card there that Susie had given me last year for my birthday and I bought a swimsuit (imagine that). We then went to a couples massage that I was able to schedule on our way over to St. George. It was a first real professional massage for both of us. We then went down a couple blocks to Texas Roadhouse (Adam’s favorite place to eat), and then went over one block to Stadium 10 and purchased tickets to Knight and Day, a comical/action movie (not Adam’s favorite), but it was showing in 15 minutes so it worked out great. We then went over two more blocks the other way and got a hotel room at Country Inn & Suites. Saturday morning we had plans to go to the temple, but Adam had this dry cough that seemed to come on after descending on the return hike earlier in the week and didn’t want to be in the temple coughing, so we found a movie on the television in the hotel room and watched it until checkout time. We ate breakfast over at IHOP and then headed home to change into work clothes and go to the flat. It sure is hard to get out of relaxing mode, but it was a break well needed and enjoyed.

It looks like a Building

This past week Adam and I took a quick trip to Las Vegas, but not for a vacation or getaway, but to get our fingerprinting done and turn in our Nevada roofing license application. It was a there and back sort of thing. Phyllis was very kind to watch the kids for us as we knew they would not enjoy the trip one bit. On Friday Adam paid his workers to clean out and organize the shop. Heidi had come out to do some riding lessons for some girls and so Tyson and Addy hopped on for a return ride. I think was still taking a nap during all of this which he would be very upset to have missed it. After taking the pictures of the kids on Di, I came in the house and Susie asked me if I had seen Addy while I was out there. She did not know that Addy had found herself wedged in between the kids on a horse ride. On Saturday we spent the day once again working on the meat shop (The project that seems like it will never end :). Today was quite the day for progress on the project. We sheeted the walls and then continued on in placing the trusses. It was a team effort by Daniel, Ben, Adam, Mark, Zac, Susie, and myself as the wind started to pick up during that part. It really looks like a building now.

Lincoln the Crib Jumper

Monday evening we had Family Home Evening with just Lincoln since Tyson fell asleep on the way home from the flat. Lincoln enjoyed the one on one attention. After putting him to bed we heard a thump and the door open a short time later. Out comes Lincoln down the hall. My baby is a crib jumper and door opener. This is just not right. Thinking that he had lucked out before doing something similar like barreling out of the crib and hurting himself and then only crying at the door because he could not open it, I thought this was the same thing but after putting him back in his crib I only found him back out in the hallway again. I guess I should sum it up that he fell asleep on my lap. On Tuesday the boys and I, my nephews Josh and Johnny all rode with Adam to Salina early in the morning to take some cows to the auction there. Stuart and Heidi drove one truck and trailer while we were in another. I enjoyed the trip. Tyson seemed a little disturbed that we were selling Grandpa’s cows and bull and made sure to remind Stuart that he needed to sell and buy a bull. We had no intentions of buying cows this trip so that evening when Tyson said the prayer for dinner he made sure to put in, “please help us to buy more cows and get a bull for Grandpa!” I was laughing about that afterwards, however Adam was laughing that during the prayer Lincoln apparently had his arms folded and eyes shut but could not resist his food so he would lean forward and grab a bite of a roll with his eyes still shut and then peek to look for his cup of milk and after getting a hold of it close his eyes again while he grabbed a sip. Adam said that was the funniest thing he had seen in a long time. We just love our two boys. Of course when it was time for bed I put Lincoln in his crib and sure enough he was out in the hall reminding me that he could crib jump and open his door. I then put him in Tyson’s bed and locked his door from the inside, which only made him cry in there for a long time. When I went in to calm him down I was so curious as to how he gets out of the crib that I asked him to show me, which he did and now that is the funniest/smartest thing I have seen in a long time. He does it like he’s been doing it for months. There’s hardly a struggle. I guess it is time to break down the crib and get him a toddler bed. My baby is not so much one anymore. On Friday Heidi let the little kids ride the horses around for a little bit before brushing them down and putting them away. Tyson and Emily are on Sippy and then Erika and Lincoln are on Di (short for Diamond). It was cute to watch Lincoln clench his arms around Erika and her being such a big girl taking him around the farm. These kids just love the horses. Saturday morning we went to Lizzy’s baptism, which was great! She is so grown up. We had donuts out on the lawn afterwards and Susie snapped this picture of these cute boys (Gage is in the middle). We went out to the flat afterwards and changed into work clothes and spent the rest of the morning tearing apart trusses to get 2x4s to get working on the north wall of the meat shop, which was a success. The wind started to pick up in the afternoon so after eating a late lunch Stuart, Adam, Heidi, the kids, and I took Wynn’s cows up on Smith’s Mesa. We enjoyed watching the 2 baby calves romping around in their new open range. We got back late and called it a night.
Today, Lincoln’s nursery teacher told Adam that she was amazed at how good Linky was at shooting a basketball. She was impressed with his form and such. It really is amazing to watch him as he sets a stance, crouches down, extends and releases the ball in one motion and even flips his wrist. I know that he has been very observant of when Adam is shooting the ball at the short beam to our hallway.

Conference Weekend

Monday was such a nice day and I really didn’t want to stay in the house and do my normal Monday morning routine, so I talked Adam to taking me with him out to the flat. I started peeling pears to bottle, but caught a ride with Adam back to our house to spend some time cleaning. Adam took the boys and his dad up to Smiths’ Mesa to plant some peach trees. I really wanted to go with them so I could continue to enjoy the beautiful day, but knew I needed to stop pampering myself at some point. They picked me up on the way back. We cleaned off the cement meat shop pad for Family Home Evening.
Thursday we watched the twins from 9-2:30, which Tyson enjoyed having them over and playing all day. They were all funny to watch. One of the twins brought this cute little pink hat to which Tyson took a liking to and was wearing around while they were outside. He looks very funny in it, but boy could he pass for a girl. When the hat became an item to quarrel over I decided to go through my slip pickings of hats that we have collected for Tyson (because he never cares to wear them) and found enough for the other three kids to wear so this picture moment could not be passed up. I realized I should have taken a picture of Tyson with that pink hat as it was a funny sight.
Friday morning, after the boys woke up, Adam and I dropped them off at Susie’s while on our way to the temple. I’ve been helping my visiting teachee with the temple work for her husband and her that they have been working on and we finally completed names of children that needed to be sealed to their parents, so that is what we did. Adam had to remove some pieces of tile from a church building for an architect that he does work for, so we went and did that (while in our church clothes) afterwards. Imagine two people dressed in church clothes with one dropping pieces of tile off of a church building on a Friday in broad daylight…an interesting sight I’m sure.
Saturday morning Adam went out to the shop early in the morning to finish working on his truck and the boys were not up yet, so he came back before the 1st session of conference and we watched it at home. We went out to the flat right after so that Adam could continue his finishing up of his truck before the 2nd session, which we watched out at the flat. Abby was so nice to straighten my hair for me during that time since I only had time before the 1st session to take a shower and wash it. I was wishing I had a lot more hair at that point so that Abby could just play with it and take a really long time to straighten it…in other words it felt really good. After that we hid eggs for the little kids to find. This picture is of Lincoln, Gage, and Tyson enjoying their loot. Mark showed up with a truck load of bread to be unloaded for the animals and I snapped some pictures of the little kids helping out. They really enjoy throwing loaves of bread out of a truck. In the one picture Lincoln really gave me a cheeser when I said, "Cheese!" We had an informal dinner since the Priesthood session was at 6 p.m. and there wasn’t much time for a sit down one. While the men were gone the women visited in the kitchen. I don’t know that the word “relax” can really be used in a sentence with women. We stayed out there visiting until late. This morning we went to Stuart and Heidi’s to watch both sessions of conference. I only made Tyson sit on my lap through two different portions of conference. We will take it a little at a time. Heidi made some yummy homemade pizza in between sessions while I put the chicken pasta salad together for the dinner at the flat afterwards. I always enjoy conference and feel that there are many basics that I need to improve and better myself and our family on and am very grateful for the instruction and reminders.

The Week of the Jean Quilt

This past week my goal was to start and finish a jean quilt for Vaughn. MaryJane had started the project as a Christmas gift for him a few years ago and after not having much access to our serger and sewing machine as it had been loaned out multiple places and then I ended up with it, she turned it over to me at Thanksgiving time last year and I knew that with my sister-in-law Heidi’s help that I could get it done. Everything worked out great as I spent Tuesday through Saturday afternoons working on it over at Heidi’s. Tyson and Lincoln had many opportunities to play with their cousins Erika and Emily and had a great time exploring around the wash. On Saturday we set up Heidi’s quilting frames in Phyllis’ basement (a.k.a Ben and Tia’s place) and tied the quilt most of the afternoon and finished pinning the binding that evening, so technically I didn’t finish it last week, but it is very close to done so that when we go to Oregon for George’s farewell then I can take it to him. One of the days when the kids were playing in the back at Heidi’s I heard this conversation take place:
Tyson: Well, only girls can’t go to the temple!
Twin 1: Yeah, only mommies and daddies can go to the temple (as she sides herself by Tyson).
Twin 2: Well, I’m Josh then! (I thought her to be very witty to quickly call herself Josh so that as a boy she could go to the temple). I’m sure they will all be excited when they grow up and learn that as they live their lives right and worthy then they all can go, not just mommies & daddies or boys. On Friday Sheldon, SaraAnn, Marshall, and Luke came into town for the weekend. Tyson and Marshall had a great time. At one point I went outside to talk to Adam and one of the twins came up to me, from being over by their horses, and said, “MaRae (LaRae), Marshall said that they is not our horses, and they is!!!” She said it with such passion and Marshall had a smirk on his face as if he knew he was harassing her. Shortly after that Erika and Emily did not like it that Marshall and Tyson would not play with them and came complaining to me about it. I took the opportunity to point out how it is not very nice to treat others that way as when the twins are with a few other girl cousins and quite often I find Tyson complaining about the same thing since usually he is the only boy trying to fit in. Friday evening we went to the St. George airport and welcomed Bryce Hastings home from his mission in California (I snapped this picture later on while he was trying to prepare his homecoming talk for next week). Afterward we all gathered at the Golden Corral for dinner. Lincoln hasn’t been feeling good the last few days and I noticed some spots on his tongue yesterday, which Phyllis thinks he has stomatitis, a viral infection that lasts about a week with high fevers and possible throwing up.

Fun Quick Visit

Today was another challenging sacrament meeting as Tyson has changed dramatically the last couple of weeks and doesn't know how to be reverent. Everything I brought for him was useless. The crayons and coloring book were not as great as Sister Jolley's set and the books were a similar situation...hers were way more fun to look at even though I'm just sure they had the same horse and pig and kittens etc. She was good to entertain them while trying to listen to the speakers. Tyson made one trip out to the hall where he had to show me how we are suppose to be reverent before he could go back in. I pretty much make the hall visits as miserable as possible since I don't get to be in the chapel listening to the speakers then I might as well make the stand with him. He begs me to go back in, which is nice. We'll keep working on his behavior. After sacrament meeting Tyson went with his old teacher to class and I caught up with him in nursery after remembering that he managed to get to church with underwear on and not a pull-up. I took him into the bathroom and had him try to go to which we had success and he managed to go all day and into most of the evening before he pooped a little in the underwear and then finished up going in the toilet. That's the latest on the potty training. I was set apart during second hour of church, for my new calling with the 14 and 15 yr olds. I'm told there are about 13 youth in there so we'll see how next Sunday goes. I'm sure going to miss my Mia Maids though. After getting set apart we took Tyson out of Nursery and came home to get everything set up at the table for my brother Will, Leslee, Brock, Keili, Roger and Barbara (Leslee's parents) to stop in for lunch/dinner while on their way home to Cali. Susie cooked up some yummy rib style pork tenderloins and brought a fruit salad and drink. I cooked up the yummy crockpot (rolled in butter and garlic and wrapped in tinfoil) potatoes, green salad, and choc chip cookies and the meal was a hit. We visited and let the kids get their energy out before getting back in the car for another leg of their trip home. We were sure glad they made the time to stop and eat/visit. Here's a few pictures I took of the kids. I do need to point out that Tyson has found his girl to cuddle this go around. He's for some odd reason fatuated with pretty girls and is entertaining to watch around them. Definitely a trait he was born with. We may have a challenge on our hands when he gets older. I'll keep these pictures around so I can point out how close he absolutely cannot get to girls when that age approaches :) Adam had a priesthood meeting at 6 pm and then when he returned we went outside and sat in our camp chairs on the driveway while Tyson and Lincoln played in our pad of dirt. Adam and I are tired as we missed a Sunday nap, went to bed late last night, and got up early this morning for Adam to go to his Elder's Quorum meeting.

The Projects & Linoln's 11 months

I decided to show some of the projects that I helped my sister-in-law Heidi accomplish at her house. This first one has Emily, Erika, Lizzy, & Tyson posing on the bed where Heidi made the quilt and we made the time to put up a wallpaper mural that Stuart had wanted/purchased 2 1/2 yrs ago. I had never wall papered before, so this was a first for me. It had 8 panels that we strategically put together and in my opinion we did pretty good. It was an added bonus that Heidi knew how wallpapering was suppose to be done too. This is also the room that Adam and I stayed in when we lived with them (a very different room now). This next one is of the kids in front of the World Atlas mural that we put up this last Wednesday. We liked this one quite a bit more because it only had 3 long panels and seemed to be a better quality which made it easier and did not take us nearly as long to put up. It was a little tricky trying to get letters and lines to match up, but it worked out pretty good in my opinion. Heidi had purchased this one for Stuart a little over 3 years ago and it felt good to be able to help her get these two projects done. She told me how my mother-in-law, Phyllis, had one in each of her homes so that her children could learn where states and countries were located. The kids would spend hours in front of the wall mural pointing out places. I appreciated learning this bit of information from Heidi because it explained why Adam and his brothers have such an infatuation with maps. If you ever want to provide some kind of entertainment for them just pull out a map and you are good to go (don't do it if you want any attention though :) So this last picture is of Lincoln sitting on the pool table, which is mostly why I took out the camera because he is in his 11th month of life and doing great. He has his bottom two teeth in and the two side top incisors working their way out along with the front ones. He continues to pull himself up and stand anywhere he can, so we know he'll be venturing towards the walking soon. He greatly dislikes it when his dad leaves for work early in the morning (yes, he is up then), and cries his eyes out until I get up and distract him with breakfast. Adam is greatly loved by his boys as a few days ago Adam was playing in a church b-ball game and as we arrived early he went to take Tyson out to the hall so they could bounce the ball around and when Lincoln saw that he started crawling after Adam and yelping at him. Adam has his hands full with excited, loving boys. Linky also loves his brother Tyson. Earlier this week he was up before Tyson and decided after playing with mom for a while that it was time for Tyson to get up and he crawled down the hall to my bedroom door and started banging on the door while yelling who knows what. He got what he wanted. We sure do love this boy.

Christmas Day in Oregon

On Saturday Adam decided that we needed to head to Oregon on Sunday as a storm was going to be coming through our travel path and we would have left sooner, however I was giving a talk in sacrament meeting and could not leave until after it. That is probably the quickest I have ever packed for a long trip, as Susie had packed the boys' bags and I had to try and think of everything we needed to bring to be prepared for a week of vacation (with the boys it is their breathing machine and medicines for their asthma, just in case). We ended up taking the truck and then Daniel and Susie in the 4-runner as the excursion we took before to Oregon looked like it might have a problem on the way and we didn't want to take a chance. We made good time and did well until we got to Burley and found the storm doing what storms do best and the road conditions causing slow traveling. We decided to go all the way through as the possibility of being snowed in for a couple days was haunting us. We picked up Sheldon and Sara Ann in our caravan as they had left earlier, but had slid off the road on the way. The 30-40 mph was fine with me so that our lives were not threatened than what they already were. We were glad to stay for a week and enjoy the time we had with family. My parents had a house full of people as usual, but it always makes for there never being a dull moment. Adam was on top of making sure that we played basketball every day at the school and we took advantage of the opportunity to take Tyson sledding which he was a little skeptical of at first, but after we forced him down with Adam he was hooked after that. He would get to the bottom and roll off the sled and start marching back up to the top of the hill, knowing that his dad was right behind him with his sled to do it again. Family is what life is all about. Lincoln didn't go sledding with us, but him and Addy found Tyson's presents of "tractor backhoes" to be very entertaining.

Thanksgiving Day

We stayed in Hurricane for Thanksgiving this year. Of course there was a good crowd of family in town and it took over 2 hours for all of the adults present to say what they were thankful for. We pretty much sat around all day and also went to RomaAnn's and visited there in the evening. Lincoln and Addy had fun for a short while on the floor and then Marshall and Tyson joined them and having 3 out of 4 looking at the camera was not bad in my opinion. Susie hooked Marshall and Tyson up in their bedroom with stuffed animals and a movie to watch, so I couldn't resist the picture moment, but as you can tell I wasn't able to do it very discreetly since I had to turn the light on in order to get a decent picture, so Tyson wanted the light left on and Marshall wanted it turned off. We went to the stake center and played basketball with anyone that wanted to. I just watched on the side with the little boys. I just love the holidays.

The Pig & A Birthday Party

Tippy (Tyler Addy Steele) had her princess birthday party on the 15th which was quite interesting since those at the party were boys, but hey what do they know. I had to drop Tyson off at the party with Susie while I went to put the packaged butchered pig goods in our freezer so they wouldn't spoil. Tyson as you can see found a ball to play with as did Tippy. I got there towards the end and left after Tippy opened presents as Tyson was obsessed with hanging on Stephanie's back and would not stop he was also starting to deal with his asthma and so I needed to get him home for a breathing treatment. I really missed out on most of the time I would have normally spent with Tyson for the day, but the slaughtering of the pig had been scheduled earlier on and since Stephanie was busy with her family and the party arrangements then I needed to be out at the shop to help deal with the pig. We managed to get everything done that we needed to and I spent a good amount of time making sure that we had everything we needed to get the job done. It's a lot of work, as Adam and Caleb can attest since they did the cutting up of all the pork and then helped wrap the sausage a few days later when we got back to finish up the stuff that we had to wait on. Susie was a great help as she took Tyson to Family Dollar to get Tippy a present. She said that Tyson picked out on his own a pink CareBear and a movie. Apparently as they were checking out, Tyson saw a little green tractor that he wanted and after asking the cashier how much it was and Susie not having enough leftover from Tippy's gift, sadly informed Tyson and he pulled a very sad lip hung over look to which the cashier said she would cover the cost and gave it to him. I'm glad that kid doesn't know the damage he could do to many a cashier.

Lincoln and Addy Picture Attack

Today was Uncle Ben's homecoming, so as I put on Lincoln's sailor outfit my mom had given Tyson a few years ago, I called Susie and told her to put Addy's sailor dress on her, so here are the pictures we took after we had dinner at the flat. I thought their facial expressions were funny along with some looks that were similar. It was a nice day outside so a few of us sat out on the grass enjoying it.

Elder Ben Comes Home!

Ben came home last night and it was a great reunion. I snapped a few shots of the handsome return missionary. It was great to see the excitement of the kids as they kept saying, "Uncle Ben, Uncle Ben!" and were caught up in the excitement of the adults but really they didn't know who or what the excitement was all about, but they were on that bench jumping up and down with great energy. I say that because even after Ben came into the building the kids were still over there shouting out towards the airplane, "Uncle Ben, Uncle Ben!" So the first picture is of the twins and Tyson. Heidi's shadow is in the background. Ben sure does look happy, but after seeing him come home from being released as a missionary it brought me back to memories of the feeling of some kind of displacement after officially being released and having to take of a missionary tag that identified you as a representative of Jesus Christ for 18 months/2 years. Its a challenging transition to go through. It was funny to see him old baby Addy and just love on her and say, "I haven't been able to hold a baby for two years." and then hug her some more. Good thing there were plenty of babies born while he was away so he could love on them when he returned. I snapped another picture of the twins, Tyson, and Sequoia. They were all so cute.

Watching the Twins

This morning Heidi brought Erika and Emily over for Susie and I to take care of while she had some errands to run. Tyson was pretty excited to have some playmates over. They played well for the most part which was kind of surprising since the twins usually gang up on Tyson and get the better of him. Tyson was good to share his toys, which the girls seemed to be more interested in than Tyson has been lately. We turned on music for all of them to dance to and that was pretty entertaining for us to watch. Actually I found myself getting dizzy because the girls dance by spinning in circles for a long time. Tyson does more of the head banging thing. After Heidi picked them up, Susie and I finished cleaning the house and getting everything ready to go to Provo/Highland for the rest of the week.